Walking through the lonely streets looking for anyone at all was about as fruitless as looking for a dinosaur. All of the towns so far have been completely deserted. My mom is in the shops looking for food and other supplies that may have been left behind, while I look for anyone who may have been left behind.

Then out of the blue I hear a sad whimper from what sounds like a dog. I run towards the sound and find a sad dog and when it sees me it runs, so I follow it. The dog leads me to a beautiful, large house with the door cracked open. The dog rushes in and I follow it in. For a minute I feel like this was a bad idea and start to leave the house, but the dog stops at the door of the first bedroom on the left. The door is cracked open and I start to walk closer to it, afraid of what might be in there. The dog barks and I hear someone say, “Shhh! Bot come here.” They sound like a boy. I get close enough to the door to look in. I see a very tan boy huddled in a corner of the room with his hands around his legs. He looks up and jumps at the sight of someone else. His messy brown hair sat perfectly on his head.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?” he asks reaching for his dog.

“My name is Mia. I saw your dog and...” I start.

“His name is Bot.”

“I saw Bot and he led me to your house, I assumed he wanted my to help you.” I say looking down at my feet. There is an awkward pause in the room for a moment.

“My name is Travis, my family just disappeared. I took a nap after school Tuesday, and when I woke up, they were gone.”

“That's so weird! My mom and I were planning on staying up all night to watch a movie marathon, and we decided to take a nap so we would be able to stay up all night. When we woke up my dad was at work and we made dinner and waited for him, but he never came home. We tried calling and texting him, but he left his phone at home. My dad has the van and our car is in the shop, so we don't have a car.” Travis says his parents don’t believe in cell phones.

As we walk out of the house Travis smiles.

“We have a car. Your mom can borrow it and give it back to my parents, when we find them!”

“Really? That's great!”

I get out my phone and call my mom. She seems surprised, but glad I found someone.

My mom meets us at Travis’ house and we all get in the car. My mom, Travis me, and Bot all fit perfectly in his Toyota. We stop in another deserted town to get food.

We get out and my mom looks around for a restaurant, while Travis, Bot, and I look around. I hear some muffled voices and walk towards the sound. The sounds are coming from a television store. There are televisions in the window playing a news cast over and over. I listen to the news cast confused.

“Evacuate immediately. Everyone must stay calm. The lethal storm should not leave California, so the nearest safest place would be Nevada. Please take all family members and important, valuable items, but don’t linger. Evacuate immediately,” the message replayed over and over.

“That may explain why there is no one is California,” Travis says staring at the T.V.

“The broadcast says that the closest safe place is Nevada,” I say watching the television.

“Well, then I guess that’s where we are going,” my mom says walking over

“After we eat,” I say smiling.

When we finish eating we all get in the car and drive off into the next town after town, all deserted. Time passes slowly, and the closer we get to Nevada, the more I felt like we would never find my Dad. I stared out the window to try to ease myself. Travis must have noticed because he started talking about random things, probably to get my mind off of my Dad.

About an hour later we see a sign off in the distance. I can barely make out “Welcome to Nevada”.

“Yay! There's the sign for Nevada! We are going to find Dad!” I say confidently

We drive for a while in Nevada, seeing no sign of life anywhere, but soon we see cars parked outside buildings and houses and a few people walking outside. A sigh of relief washes over the tense car. Bot barks happily.

“Now, we just have to figure out where dad is,” I say petting Bot.

“Don’t worry, Mia, I’m sure we will find him,” Travis says reassuringly.

“Where should we start our search?” I ask.

“How about we talk about this while we eat.” mom asks.

“Look that diner looks good,” Travis points to a very crowded diner.

My mom pulls over in front of a diner. We get out and walk inside. We open the doors and immediately hear a scream. Then someone shouts Travis’ name. A tall woman runs over and pulls him into a bear hug. When they let go the woman has tears running down her face. She begins to explain that they were rushed out of town and were not able to come home and get him. He smiles and tells her that he is just happy to see her. He turns to me and introduces us.

“Mia, this is my mom. Mom, this is Mia.”

“Nice to meet you,” I say scanning the room for my Dad. Near the restrooms my mom is talking to someone. I walk over leaving Travis and his Mom by the doors. When I get closer I see that my Mom is talking to a man. The man is short, like me, has light brown hair. Mom shifts on her feet so I get a glimpse of his face.

“Dad!” I shout running over to him. He looks up and a large, happy smile crosses his face. He opens his arms for me and we embrace. He tells us that he tried to come get us, but he was rushed out of California. I tell him that happened to my friends (Bot and Travis) as well. My Dad has the car parked outside the diner and we give Travis’ mom her car back and her and her husband drove separately home.

When we get home, Dad was very surprised about how little damage there is. There are very little people back in our town and some of the stores were being replenished. I was so happy to have my family back together, and to make some new friends along the way.